NYT’s Haberman: Not a ‘Single Person’ Wanted DeSantis to Replace Hegseth as Defense Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump doubled down on defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth after GOP leaders didn’t warm to putting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the role, said New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman.
Haberman was on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° on Friday when she told guest host John Berman that Trump had indeed wavered on Hegseth due to all the bad press surrounding his alleged drinking habits and alleged sexual assault.
However, Haberman claimed, “Trump could not find a single person in his orbit, or even really outside of it, who liked this idea of making Ron DeSantis—the governor of Florida—the defense secretary choice.”
Haberman’s comment backs another report by The Wall Street Journal that also said Trump was thinking of swapping Hegseth with DeSantis—a prospective move Haberman described at the time as “mind-boggling.”
Haberman told Berman, “And it was not, you know, ‘We’re going to drop Hegseth, and we’re going to look for a bunch of other people.’ It was Hegseth or DeSantis at that point. And so, Trump was persuaded also after a call from Pete Hegseth to let Hegseth go out and see if he could fight his way past some of these stories.”
That call apparently then precipitated with Hegseth sitting down for an interview with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, which Haberman said became a rallying point for MAGA loyalists who are determined to see Hegseth’s nomination pushed through.
Senate confirmation hearings for all of Trump’s cabinet nominees are expected to begin during the 119th Congress, starting Jan. 3, 2025, with several GOP leaders publicly and privately being on the fence about his nomination—including Sen. Joni Erst of Iowa.
“As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources,” said Ernst about Hegseth’s nomination, reported NBC News.
About Ernst, Haberman added, “You saw this movement, most significantly, this conservative now MAGA movement really, really activated online on digital ads, making a target specifically of Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa to try and get her to a ‘yes.’”
